The Faust Quartett and Dimitri Ashkenazy perform Sallinen, Mozart and Beethoven at the Bergen International Festival 2010. Learn more about the works here.
The Faust Quartett. PHOTO: NORBERT ROZTOCKI
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791)
Clarinet Quintet in A major, KV 581
Allegro
Larghetto
Menuetto
Allegretto con variazioni
‘Oh, if only we had clarinets!’ wrote Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in a letter to his father Leopold, written in 1778 after a visit to Mannheim, where the instrument had long been used in the court orchestra. By the time Mozart moved to Vienna as a freelance musician and composer in 1781 the clarinet had made its way into standard orchestral instrumentation.
Mozart first became aware of the clarinet during his visit to London as a child prodigy, but he did not use it himself until he was fifteen years old. It appears in several divertimenti and serenades, but in the 1780s he used it in compositions for full orchestra, and from Idomeneo onwards it is found in all his opera scores. In a symphonic context he was more restrictive, and originally used it only in two symphonies, though he added clarinet parts to two more. There are clarinets in only three of his piano concertos.
Mozart contributed to changing the place of the clarinet in the history of music through the three works he composed for Anton Paul Stadler (1753–1812): the Clarinet Trio KV489, the Clarinet Concerto KV622 and the Clarinet Quintet KV581. The latter two works were actually written for the basset horn, which Stadler had developed in collaboration with instrument maker Theodor Lotz. Its register was significantly extended, but it later fell into disuse, and when the two compositions were published they had already been adapted for the standard clarinet.
The Quintet was first performed in December 1789 at a Christmas concert in the Burgtheater. In his biography of Mozart, H C Robbins Landon claims it is one of the foremost examples of Mozart’s works that ‘smile through tears’. Parts of the composition seem ‘to reflect a state of aching despair, but the whole is clothed not in some violent minor key, but in a radiant A major.’ Mozart achieves a miraculous adaptation of the timbre of the clarinet to that of the strings in a transparent texture. Eric Blom maintains that the Clarinet Quintet is one of the compositions the score of which we can imagine Mozart observing with a kind of joyous astonishment: ‘How on earth did I do this?’
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)
String Quartet No 15 in A minor, op. 132
Assai sostenuto – Allegro
Allegro ma non tanto
Molto adagio: Canzona di ringraziamento offerta divinità da un guarito, in modo lidico –
Andante: Sentendo nuova forza
Alla marcia, assai vivace – Più allegro – Presto
Allegro appassionato
The Russian Prince Nikolas Golitsïn was an enthusiastic amateur cellist and a great admirer of German music. He visited Vienna in 1822 to commission Ludwig van Beethoven to write string quartets at a price to be determined by the composer. Even without the commission Beethoven would doubtless have chosen the string quartet to express the ideas he was having at the time. Long experience had perfected his style, and reflection on the eternal mysteries had given him understanding in existential issues. His last five string quartets, of which three are dedicated to Golitsïn, are products of this final rich phase of his life. The prince wrote to Beethoven: ‘Your genius is centuries in advance of its time, and today there is hardly anyone who is capable of appreciating the beauty of your music.’
The A minor Quartet was written between March and August 1825, interrupted when Beethoven fell ill that spring, an event that is reflected in the music. His illness forced him to receive treatment at the spa at Baden near Vienna, which is where he composed the third movement, headed ‘Holy song of thanks to the divinity, from one made well’, and followed by ‘Feel new power’.
Text: Hans H Rowe
English version: Roger Martin